Bulk create users in Microsoft 365 from a CSV file

What you need before step 1

Applies to: Cloud-only user accounts in Microsoft 365 for business and enterprise tenants (as documented). If your users come from on-premises Active Directory, sync them with Microsoft Entra Connect instead.

8 steps

1. 1

   Open Add multiple users

   Where: Microsoft 365 admin center > Users > Active users

   Sign in at https://admin.microsoft.com, go to Users > Active users and select Add multiple users.

   You should see: The Add list of users page asks whether to add users in rows on the page or upload a CSV. Select I'd like to upload a CSV with user information; links to a blank CSV and an example CSV appear. Older tenants may show this as an Import multiple users panel with the same template links.
2. 2

   Download and fill in the CSV template

   Where: Add list of users page, then a text editor or Excel

   Download the blank CSV. Keep row 1 exactly as it is, because Microsoft requires the same column headings in the same order. Add one user per row below it. User Name and Display Name are required; leave other fields blank if you do not have them. The file can have at most 250 rows (249 users). For more users, split them over several files. Microsoft also suggests one file per country or region because the wizard sets one location per file. Save as CSV in UTF-8 or Unicode if you use non-English characters.

   User Name,First Name,Last Name,Display Name,Job Title,Department,Office Number,Office Phone,Mobile Phone,Fax,Alternate email address,Address,City,State or Province,ZIP or Postal Code,Country or Region
   chris@contoso.com,Chris,Green,Chris Green,IT Manager,Information Technology,,,,,,,,,,Australia
   ben@contoso.com,Ben,Andrews,Ben Andrews,Accountant,Finance,,,,,,,,,,Australia

   You should see: A CSV with the 16 headings in row 1 and one user on each following row.
3. 3

   Upload and verify the file

   Where: Microsoft 365 admin center > Users > Active users > Add multiple users

   Select Browse, go to the CSV, and select Open. If your page shows a Verify button, select it and fix any problems it reports (you can download a log file), then verify again.

   You should see: The file is accepted and you can continue to Licenses.
4. 4

   Choose location, licences and apps

   Where: Add multiple users > Licenses

   Select the usage location, the licences and the apps to assign to every user in the file. One location applies to the whole file. Then continue to Review and finish adding multiple users and select Add users.

   You should see: A results page shows how many users were created and whether you need more licences.
5. 5

   Save the results

   Where: Add multiple users > results page

   Send the results to yourself if you need the temporary passwords. Microsoft warns the passwords are sent in plain text, so send them only to a mailbox you control and delete the email once users have signed in.

   You should see: The new users are listed on the Active users page (it can take a few minutes for them to appear).
6. 6

   Alternative: install Microsoft Graph PowerShell

   Where: PowerShell 7 on your admin PC (Windows or macOS)

   Use this route for more than 249 users or if you want to script the import. Install the module for your account, as documented on the Microsoft Graph PowerShell installation page.

   Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
   Install-Module Microsoft.Graph -Scope CurrentUser -Repository PSGallery -Force
   Get-InstalledModule Microsoft.Graph

   You should see: Get-InstalledModule lists Microsoft.Graph and its version.
7. 7

   Prepare a CSV for PowerShell

   Where: A text editor, saved as C:\temp\NewAccounts.csv (or ~/NewAccounts.csv on macOS)

   For PowerShell, the column names are up to you as long as the script uses the same names. Microsoft's example uses these columns.

   UserPrincipalName,FirstName,LastName,DisplayName,UsageLocation,MailNickname
   chris@contoso.com,Chris,Green,Chris Green,AU,chris
   ben@contoso.com,Ben,Andrews,Ben Andrews,AU,ben

   You should see: A CSV with one header row and one row per user.
8. 8

   Connect and create the users

   Where: PowerShell 7 on your admin PC

   Connect with the User.ReadWrite.All scope and sign in as a User Administrator in the browser window that opens. Then run the loop. Replace the password with a strong temporary one (Microsoft requires 8 to 16 characters mixing lower case, upper case, numbers and symbols) and require a change at first sign-in.

   Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "User.ReadWrite.All"
   $users = Import-Csv -Path "C:\temp\NewAccounts.csv"
   foreach ($user in $users) {
     $PasswordProfile = @{ Password = "Temp-Pa55word!"; ForceChangePasswordNextSignIn = $true }
     New-MgUser -DisplayName $user.DisplayName -GivenName $user.FirstName -Surname $user.LastName -UserPrincipalName $user.UserPrincipalName -UsageLocation $user.UsageLocation -MailNickname $user.MailNickname -PasswordProfile $PasswordProfile -AccountEnabled:$true
   }

   You should see: PowerShell prints a line for each new user with its Id, DisplayName and UserPrincipalName.

Expert tips

How to confirm it worked

• In the Microsoft 365 admin center go to Users > Active users and check the new accounts are listed with the licence you chose.

• In PowerShell, check one account and its usage location:

  Get-MgUser -UserId chris@contoso.com -Property DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,UsageLocation | Select-Object DisplayName,UserPrincipalName,UsageLocation

• Sign in at https://www.office.com as one test user with the temporary password and confirm you are asked to set a new one.

How to reverse it

Errors you might see

Questions

Official sources

Vendors change menus and requirements. Confirm on the source before you rely on a detail. Last checked 4 Nov 2026.